An Oral History of The Office (Podcast, 2020)
I don’t often review podcasts, partly as I only listen to a select few, I’m not someone who adds a lot of new shows to my podcasting repertoire. However, when I read about this one a few weeks ago it caught my attention and on listening to the podcast trailer I immediately loved listening to Brian Baumgartner (Kevin in ‘The Office’) whose voice and presenting style really enjoyable and surprisingly soothing.
There have only been five episodes released so far, the latest of which I have yet to listen to as I’m finishing writing this early afternoon. I am loving this podcast so much, it’s now something I’m finding myself anticipating the next episode of, a little highlight in my week. Now, on a Tuesday afternoon, I’m finding myself co-ordinating my day so I can enjoy listening to it while cooking and tidying the house. The tone and style remind me quite a bit of the excellent ‘Drawn’ podcast that my brother got me into, which was a particularly good show that tells the story of animation and which is desperately in need of a second season.
This doesn’t take the episodic format like other podcasts about beloved-but-finished TV series, especially as that’s already happening with ‘The Office Ladies’ hosted by Jenna Fischer and Anglea Kinsey. My problem with that format is it makes me feel like I have to re-watch the show at as it goes, I want to refresh my memory of the episodes they’re talking about and so the podcast is a little harder to enjoy on its own merits or at the same pace as I watch the show.
This podcast takes the more easy-listening format of discussing, not the episodes themselves, but the making of the show in general. Episode one tells of the conception, gaining the rights to the British show, and the effort to get it going. Then there are episodes that go in-depth on starting production, the struggling first season, and last week I just listened to the fourth episode which deals with the period in which the show went from nearly being cancelled, to gaining huge popularity, with a perfect storm of events, many of which I didn’t know about.
Some stories and things discussed I was already familiar with, but there has been so much new information revealed too. There have been interesting and entertaining firsthand accounts from the key players, practically all of them, from almost the entire cast including Steve Carrell, producers, writers, casting directors, and even Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. One of the silver linings to lockdown is that we’re seeing these usually busy actors finding themselves more available to participate in interviews, table-reads, and podcasts, making something like this feel like a more rounded-out and ‘definitive’ account instead of just one perspective.
I’m off now to ‘clean the kitchen’, a.k.a. listen to the next episode, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who’s interested in the production of television or films, and especially fans of ‘The Office’ as it’ll build your appreciation for the show.
‘An Oral History of The Office’ is available to listen to on Spotify and is essentially unmissable for anyone who loves the show, as well as full of great insights for those interested in television.
The Lion King (2019) – Visually, it’s a really impressive film, yet somehow it’s staggeringly unimpressive in almost every other way. I don’t have a long-held love of the original from my childhood, I only saw it for the first (and second) time a couple of years ago, but I felt like this added almost nothing to the story and in some ways detracted from it. The photorealistic characters look amazing, they’re of the highest visual artistry but crucially they lack the personality afforded by the more anthropomorphised hand-drawn versions. The voice casting was generally excellent, but no amount of vocal charisma is enough to make this anywhere near as special as it needed to be a worthwhile reimagining of Disney’s most acclaimed animated classic. $1.6bn however means that Disney will continue making these, I just hope they work harder on adapting their classics in a way that actually adds something to each, not like this almost shot-for-shot remake.
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker – I have really enjoyed going to see the Disney-era films at the cinema but this was a messy beast of a film. It felt overstuffed, muddled, and like it pushed aside all recent development and much logic in a thankless attempt to tick certain boxes. A minor let down for me, but I’m not a huge fan of the franchise with high levels of investment and expectations. I think it may even get worse on repeat viewing, especially if seen straight after episodes 7 & 8 as part of a marathon. The characters developed in this phase of the franchise are badly let down and it’s a waste of potential that was abundantly clear when I saw ‘The Force Awakens’. Hopefully, now they’ll leave the Skywalker saga completely alone and ensure that any future films or series don’t try to ‘fix’ the problems as it’ll just make things worse.
Missing Link – Another example of beautiful filmmaking as is always the case from Laika, their animation always looks incredible, though I didn’t feel like the story or characters did very much to keep me completely interested. I liked the character of Susan and Zack Galifinakis voiced him brilliantly, especially as the film is more comedic than some of their others, though, beyond that, it’s not a tale that’s going to stick with me for very long. I have seen it twice on Netflix while very tired and kept dozing off, missing different bits both times, so I have seen it through but not in one perfect sitting, which may be more my fault than the film’s but still I feel like the adventurous aspects could be heightened a little more so it’s the exciting adventure it promises to be in the marketing.
I Lost My Body / J’ai perdu mon corps – This French animation is possibly the lowest-profile of this year’s Academy Award nominees available to stream on Netflix. A severed hand makes its way across the city to get back to its owner while recounting key events in his life from his youth and recent past. This premise sounds somewhat macabre but in practice the film makes great efforts to be heartfelt and charming, effectively counteracting the weirdness of the unusual first-hand perspective. Hand in hand with that is the visual style, really beautiful hand-drawn animation that I found particularly expressive and endearing. No explanation is given for the hand’s agency. It’s not enchanted or extra-terrestrial, not superhuman nor supernatural, it’s just happening and facilitating the beautiful storytelling. I watched it in the English dubbed version for ease, which featured such voices as Dev Patel and Alia Shawkat and it kept me completely invested and entertained throughout.
